But he did take a loss that set his family back quite a bit, caused a lot of stress in his marriage, prevented them from being able to buy the new home his wife wanted with the right number of bedrooms for his kids, set him back years in saving for retirement and buying investment properties that could have made him money instead of losing money, etc.

It also saves you some costs, which is helpful when you’re just starting.

Hadn't considered that, so that just saved a few years off my life. 

But especially if you plan to live in one unit I would assume you’d save another full point in interest.

If I do 1031 exchange can I  save on  taxes ?

Since generally the benefit of a house hack is to hold the primary residence loan as long as possible, if you hold it long-term, you could still be forced to pay the mortgage insurance 10+ years down the line.Plus, you can only have one FHA loan (with some exceptions) at a time, so I'd rather use this house hack for 5% down which I can repeat and save FHA for another time. 

You could always get the extended warranty and still save money over the 3k model.

In terms of deal flow I would reach out to a couple of wholesalers, agents and join some local investor groups either on Facebook or online local community to start.

Hey @Erika Andersen I totally hear you in wanting to save some money and taking on the task yourself.

@Franklin PerezGetting your real estate license can be a smart move if you want MLS access, networking opportunities, and savings on commissions, but it comes with costs and disclosure requirements.